[Other] Did you guys know... ?

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Null

Null

Bob Munden can draw and fire a single-action revolver in about 1/10th of a second and hit his target (admittedly, at 5-10 feet most of the time). His hand endures more than 10G of acceleration when doing so. Normal human reaction time is close to 1/4 of a second.

Edit: I would love to see that on Mythbusters.
 
S

SeraRelm

Also, if you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
 
strawman

strawman

The standard telephone network converts voice to 8 bit per sample, 8,000 sample per second digital audio for ease of switching and multiplexing. When moving digital data the last bit of each byte is used as a clock, toggling back and forth every sample to avoid long strings of all zero data - which is not allowed by the standard.

7 bits per sample at 8,000 samples per second is 56,000 bits per second - this is why the fastest analog modems were only rated up to 56k. Rarely did you get that level of performance, but it was the upper limit due to the way the system converted analog to digital and back, losing that last bit for clock recovery.

24 conversations at 8 bits per sample at 8,000 samples per second is 1.5 megabits per second - the speed of a T1 line. These were introduced in the 1950's as a way to carry up to 24 conversations on one copper wire.
 
Bowielee

Bowielee

Keeping on the theme of sound being carried mechanically, Alexander Graham Bell began speech recognition research way back in 1874. He is the first to prove that sound waves can be mechanically converted into information.

He is also one of the most demonized figures in the deaf community. He established schools that punished students for using sign language, and only allowed for the use of lip reading. These schools developed the techniques still used to teach deaf people to speak.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

A white swan has about 25.000 feathers; 20.000 of them are situated on and around its neck. That's the most plumage of any European bird.
 
Null

Null

German numeration uses a , where we would use a . and vice versa. Hence, pi would approximate to 3,14 and one's power level would be over 9.000


Might be the same in other European nations, but that's one of the few things I remember auf Deutsche.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Stricly speaking, we use spaces. I'd normally say 25 000. I threw in a dot 'cause I forgot you 'mericans are so weird you manage to screw up even normal numbers. Weirdos!

Anyway, 25,000 feathers it is. 25's after you've cooked them and put the tail feathers back in for prestentation.
 
S

SeraRelm

That's as many as two thousand, five hundred tens! And that's terrible!
 
TommiR

TommiR

In the movie Casablanca, the german soldiers in the cafe were originally supposed to sing the Horst Wessel Lied, until the producers realised it was still under german copyright. That would have been no problem amongst the Allies who were at war with Germany, but might have posed complications and hurt sales in neutral countries, which still respected german copyrights. So the song was substituted with Die Wacht am Rhein.
 
Null

Null

TommiR said:
In the movie Casablanca, the german soldiers in the cafe were originally supposed to sing the Horst Wessel Lied, until the producers realised it was still under german copyright. That would have been no problem amongst the Allies who were at war with Germany, but might have posed complications and hurt sales in neutral countries, which still respected german copyrights. So the song was substituted with Die Wacht am Rhein.
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The reason so many of the extras teared up while singing La Marseillaise is that many of them were from nations being occupied by Germany. Casablanca was being filmed in 1941, before the United States had entered the war, and there was a legitimate question of if their homeland would ever be freed from the Nazis. In a scene where they united to overpower the symbol of German authority, even just in song, these refugees really weren't acting.
 
TommiR

TommiR

Null said:
The reason so many of the extras teared up while singing La Marseillaise is that many of them were from nations being occupied by Germany. Casablanca was being filmed in 1941, before the United States had entered the war, and there was a legitimate question of if their homeland would ever be freed from the Nazis. In a scene where they united to overpower the symbol of German authority, even just in song, these refugees really weren't acting.
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Are you quite sure about your dates? Germany declared war on the United States in December 1941, whereas the wikipedia page for Casablanca indicates the studio bought rights to the film in January 1942, and the filming took place between May and August. The film premiered in November, to coincide with the allied invasion of North Africa.
 
Null

Null

TommiR said:
Are you quite sure about your dates? Germany declared war on the United States in December 1941, whereas the wikipedia page for Casablanca indicates the studio bought rights to the film in January 1942, and the filming took place between May and August. The film premiered in November, to coincide with the allied invasion of North Africa.
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Oh, you're right. I thought it was filmed the year previous. Still, since the US / Allied forces hadn't landed in Europe yet, it was still a fairly undecided issue. Does undercut my bit of know-it-alling though.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
TommiR said:
Are you quite sure about your dates? Germany declared war on the United States in December 1941, whereas the wikipedia page for Casablanca indicates the studio bought rights to the film in January 1942, and the filming took place between May and August. The film premiered in November, to coincide with the allied invasion of North Africa.
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Still, if memory serves, the director actually insisted on having actors of as many European nationalities as possible in the scenes involving Rick's Café Americain - to the point where Cracked.com joked that the next step would have been getting actual Nazis to play the villains. So I can certainly believe Null 's story of actors tearing up.

Just look at 'em.

 
fade

fade

Staff member
"The Swiss Family Robinson" does not mean the family is named Robinson (which is not a Swiss name). Their family name is never given in the book. The title is meant to imply that the Swiss family is living like Robinson Crusoe.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
fade said:
"The Swiss Family Robinson" does not mean the family is named Robinson (which is not a Swiss name). Their family name is never given in the book. The title is meant to imply that the Swiss family is living like Robinson Crusoe.
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... shouldn't it be the Swiss Family Crusoe then?
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
What can we learn from this? When the nights get longer and colder and damper, people will rather stay inside and bump some uglies ;)
 
Null

Null

Despite being an army scout during the western migrations, a bare-knuckle boxer, a lawman on several occasions, and being involved in at least 3 fatal gunfights, Wyatt Earp was never seriously injured and died of natural causes at 80 years old. I know 3 gunfights doesn't sound like that many, but shootings were actually fairly rare. Many boom towns had ordinances against carrying firearms in town, because basically a bunch of drunken cowhands (or prospectors) + alcohol + prostitutes + firearms = a powder keg of violence. Earp supposedly carried a "Buntline Special" revolver; a Colt Single Action Army with a 12-inch barrel. While no connection with Ned Buntline has been proven, Wyatt's second wife Josie mentioned that Wyatt favored a long-barreled revolver with a detachable stock for use in pistol-whipping and as a revolver carbine. Colt's factory in Harford, CT, did have revolvers with up to 16 inch barrels available, for an additional dollar per inch over the standard 7.5 inch barrel.
 
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